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Swizzle [bicycling]
Feb. 17th, 2021 11:08 amMy college is requiring that all employees get COVID tested before the start of our spring semester next Monday, with the PCR-based test.
Getting this checked off the to-do list is pretty easy for people who get around by car. Heck, I could have gotten it done last Wednesday when I went for my second vaccine poke, because there's a drive-through testing site at SUNY Albany in addition to the mass vaccination site.
However, at the drive-through testing site they absolutely do not allow anybody who is not inside a closed-up motor vehicle to get tested. I know this because of a colleague who commented that if you show up there in a convertible with the top down, they'll make you leave and put the top up before you can proceed. (*gasp* how inconvenient!)
Based on information from students here who don't own cars, there's a testing site at an Annoying Big Pharmacy Chain close to my house that allows walk-ups, but according to the Annoying Big Pharmacy Chain's website that testing site does not offer the gold-standard PCR-based test.
So I found the next-closest location of the Annoying Big Pharmacy Chain and scheduled a test in spite of the online verbiage declaring it to be a drive-through testing site.
This was one of those occasions when I think that presenting as a Harmless Masked Middle-Aged White Woman gave me an advantage over people who do not present as a Harmless Masked Middle-Aged Woman. I simply wish to point out my privilege here. Long story short, after some internal consultation they relented and gave me the self-administered test to administer to myself and then drop off in the drive-through bin. From the drive-through window I could see that the pharmacy was pretty busy with foot traffic inside. I definitely wouldn't want to have had to go inside that store. One of the worst Covid risk encounters I've had so far was inside of a different Annoying Big Pharmacy Chain where I went to pick up my cat's methimazole prescription.
While I'm relieved to have the required test done and over with, I'm sad about the lasting inequalities in access to healthcare resources in this country and state, particularly as tied to the privilege of motor vehicle ownership and female whiteness.
In general a lot of places really don't like it when people walk up to the drive-through, and yet isn't it also ridiculous how much stuff in this country is constructed solely around the comfort and convenience of people in cars?
I want to note that the main excuse I've heard given for the dislike of people walking up to the drive-through is that it's "dangerous" for the person who isn't in their protective vehicular shell. And yet traffic flow through drive-throughs tends to be very highly and carefully controlled, so it seems to me that the drive-through is actually far safer for a person on a bicycle or on foot as compared to many other spaces, particularly parking lots.
This is all what structural inequality looks like in the U.S.
Getting this checked off the to-do list is pretty easy for people who get around by car. Heck, I could have gotten it done last Wednesday when I went for my second vaccine poke, because there's a drive-through testing site at SUNY Albany in addition to the mass vaccination site.
However, at the drive-through testing site they absolutely do not allow anybody who is not inside a closed-up motor vehicle to get tested. I know this because of a colleague who commented that if you show up there in a convertible with the top down, they'll make you leave and put the top up before you can proceed. (*gasp* how inconvenient!)
Based on information from students here who don't own cars, there's a testing site at an Annoying Big Pharmacy Chain close to my house that allows walk-ups, but according to the Annoying Big Pharmacy Chain's website that testing site does not offer the gold-standard PCR-based test.
So I found the next-closest location of the Annoying Big Pharmacy Chain and scheduled a test in spite of the online verbiage declaring it to be a drive-through testing site.
This was one of those occasions when I think that presenting as a Harmless Masked Middle-Aged White Woman gave me an advantage over people who do not present as a Harmless Masked Middle-Aged Woman. I simply wish to point out my privilege here. Long story short, after some internal consultation they relented and gave me the self-administered test to administer to myself and then drop off in the drive-through bin. From the drive-through window I could see that the pharmacy was pretty busy with foot traffic inside. I definitely wouldn't want to have had to go inside that store. One of the worst Covid risk encounters I've had so far was inside of a different Annoying Big Pharmacy Chain where I went to pick up my cat's methimazole prescription.
While I'm relieved to have the required test done and over with, I'm sad about the lasting inequalities in access to healthcare resources in this country and state, particularly as tied to the privilege of motor vehicle ownership and female whiteness.
In general a lot of places really don't like it when people walk up to the drive-through, and yet isn't it also ridiculous how much stuff in this country is constructed solely around the comfort and convenience of people in cars?
I want to note that the main excuse I've heard given for the dislike of people walking up to the drive-through is that it's "dangerous" for the person who isn't in their protective vehicular shell. And yet traffic flow through drive-throughs tends to be very highly and carefully controlled, so it seems to me that the drive-through is actually far safer for a person on a bicycle or on foot as compared to many other spaces, particularly parking lots.
This is all what structural inequality looks like in the U.S.
